British rapist to be extradited

Convicted rapist Trevor Masters, who jumped bail during his trial and fled to France, should be extradited to Britain to serve his 12-year jail sentence, a French judge ruled today.

Masters disappeared in August last year before a Cardiff jury found him guilty of rape, three counts of causing actual bodily harm, two indecent assaults, two attempted serious sexual offences against a child and indecently assaulting a girl under 16.

The 48-year-old told a panel of three judges in Pau, south-west France, two weeks ago that he was innocent, the UK trial was unfair and he wanted to stay. His lawyer, Claude Garcia, argued that British authorities had not sent all the relevant paperwork.

But the court today ruled that he should be extradited.

Masters, who is in custody, was on the run for 10 months until he was tracked down in Pau in June after a series of cash withdrawals.

M Garcia said he was disappointed at the Court of Appeal's decision, delivered by Judge Henri Suquet. He would now be taking Masters's case to the Court of Appeal in Paris, a move which could take a further eight months. If that failed, he said, he would go to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg; and if that failed, the French prime minister would decide Masters's fate.

The final option would be to appeal to the Conseil D'Etat in Paris. M Garcia said the whole process could take a year, in which time Masters will remain in prison in Pau.

He said he was fighting Masters's case on the basis that his client did not have the same rights to justice in Britain as he did in France, in terms of a right to appeal and a right to a retrial. "For someone to be extradited from France you have to be sure they will have the same access to justice in the other country as they would in France," he said.

But he added that since the terrorist attacks in New York there was more pressure for extraditions.

Masters was in court to hear the decision this morning. M Garcia said: "He is disappointed but not really surprised either."